


Careful, This Could Kill You

by MadMothMadame



Series: Friends are the Family You Choose [2]
Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis, 幽☆遊☆白書 | YuYu Hakusho: Ghost Files
Genre: Again, Found Family, Gen, Here's part 2, I'm afraid it's just us folks, Ryoma is new at this whole friendship thing, So yeah, Yusuke has it rough, also, and no one will convince me that a fourteen-year-old deserves it, be prepared, but it's cute that he's trying, love you guys, share my pain, so here, this one has the angst, with a crossover no one asked for or needed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-10
Updated: 2019-09-10
Packaged: 2020-10-14 06:56:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20596601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MadMothMadame/pseuds/MadMothMadame
Summary: Yusuke is having a rough day. It doesn't really get better.Ryoma's day is going great. It only gets worse.





	Careful, This Could Kill You

Yusuke having a shit day.

First off, he had woken up early, which was frustrating. After spending most of the evening the night before out and about, he had had full plans to sleep until noon. Instead, he woke up feeling restless.

So he decided to try going to school. He usually popped in every couple of days, when he couldn't stand being at home and there was no work for a fourteen year old or fights to be had in broad daylight and he needed to do something. He put on his old green uniform, vaguely hoping that Mr. Iwamoto would be absent that day. As far as teachers went, that guy ranked as one of the worst Yusuke had ever had. Yusuke was used to people hating him for no reason, but Iwamoto really went out of his way to make Yusuke’s life miserable.

He wasn't absent though, and from roll call singled out Yusuke for every little thing. He didn't make it past the first course before Principle Takenaka called him out of class. Yusuke used the excuse to escape to the roof. 

That was nice for a bit. He could only barely hear Takenaka nagging over the loudspeaker from the roof. The only downside was that come lunchtime, Keiko, who was the closest thing to a friend he had in this whole place, found him and pitched a bitch fit about him not coming to school. Which, hello? He was there wasn't he? Way to make him not want to come back.

So he had said fuck that, and decided to just freaking leave. He hadn't made ten meters from the back door before he heard two of his classmates bragging about stealing some guy’s wallet in his name.

Yusuke was a lot of things, but a thief wasn't one of them. That they called him stupid was just the icing on the cake.

He wasn't even gonna beat the shit out of them, just scare them a bit, when Iwamoto had to come around the corner. Of course he thought Yusuke was the bad guy, as always. Nothing like being called “No good worthless scum” from a guy you were supposed to respect as a teacher. It was no fucking wonder he didn't bother coming. 

Yusuke gave himself a solid pat on the back for not punching his teacher’s face in. He didn't really need another expulsion, and the asshole really wasn't worth it.

Takenaka caught him on his way out and tried to drag him off for yet another lecture, but Yusuke was having none of it. He perched on the fence just long enough to tell Takenaka to mind his own freaking business before saying ‘fuck it to the whole day’ and going home.

Home hadn't turned out much better. For one thing, his mom was still in her pajamas, in bed, and wasting her day watching tv. It was the first time he had seen her conscious and sober in days and the first thing she said to him was “Get me coffee.”

He hadn't even finished making it before she laid into him about skipping school, which was hilarious for several reasons, firstly being that he hadn't been to school all week and this was the first time she even noticed, and secondly, pajamas.

When he pointed this out, she just said he should live somewhere else if he didn't want to be preached at. Rich, considering he had paid the rent the month before, not her. 

He knew she didn't want him around; she had made that abundantly clear. Didn't mean it was nice to hear her say it to his face.

They may have had a bit of a fight after that that ended with her throwing the coffee he had made her at him and him leaving.

He didn't even know why he bothered anymore.

The only bright moment was running into that moron Kuwabara. He was always good for venting frustrations, but even he couldn't really brighten Yusuke’s mood.

Really, could this day get any worse?

-

Ryoma Echizen was having a pretty good day.

Seigaku had turned out to be a pretty cool school as far as he was concerned. The tennis team, which had been abysmal at the elementary school he had attended in the United States, was actually interesting. The ranking matches were turning out to be fierce. If he hadn't been working out with Yusuke, running all over town, his match with Kaidoh would not have gone nearly as well as it had. 

As it was, he had outpaced his senpai. It was a good feeling, having his hard work pay off. Yusuke’s stamina was unreal, and running with him had pushed Ryoma passed what he would have been able to do from training alone.

Plus, the older guy was good company. More so than most people anyways. He was a sarcastic jerk most of the time, but so was Ryoma. It was nice to find someone who didn't take offence.

For all that he was a bit of a loud mouth, Yusuke was really relaxed about the whole “senpai” thing, which was a refreshing change from the other older guys Ryoma had run into. Being from the U.S., he didn't really buy into the whole system, and neither did Yusuke, which was nice. Ryoma liked starting on equal footing with someone, he decided. Yusuke had never made him feel like he had anything to prove.

Unlike Momoshiro, who had invited Ryoma to burgers as a congrats for beating Kaidoh. He hadn't felt it all that worthy of celebrating, as he had more outlasted his opponent then outplayed him, but Momoshiro seemed to have something against his classmate. Ryoma didn't particularly care for being used as a tool for gloating, as Momo had been rather loud when announcing he was taking Ryoma out, seemingly just to make sure that Kaidoh heard him. It had seemed a bit petty, but Echizen was hungry, and Kaidoh could more than take care of himself.

Still, Echizen made sure to load up his plate. Momo’s one-upping of his classmates would be expensive. Ryoma was starving. 

Momo was sitting across from him, talking about something. Ryoma wasn't listening. He had finished most of his food and picked at the fries as he stares out the window, unseeing. He wondered vaguely if Yusuke would swing by that evening. He hadn't been in a few days, but Ryoma had told him the ranking matches would be keeping him busy, so he hadn't paid the older boys absence any thought.

Now though, the match with Kaidoh, long and drawn out as it had been, left him itching for the sprint matches his and Yusuke’s runs had become. 

“... a word I've said, have you?” 

Ryoma jolted back to the present. Momo-senpai was looking at him, amused.

Echizen couldn't bring himself to be embarrassed. He tugged his hat down a bit and said, “Aren't you done yet?”

“Aww, Echizen! You're so impatient.”

“Che,” he scoffed and settled against the window as Momoshiro wolfed down his last two hamburgers. They finally left the little store and began to head home.

They had only walked a few blocks. The sidewalks were busy, but Echizen could still clearly see the green jumpsuit heading towards them long before Yusuke noticed them.

The older boy had his hands stuffed in his pockets and was hunched over angrily. He seemed to be bothered by something in a way Ryoma had never seen him. Usually so aware, Yusuke didn’t pay any mind to the way people rushed to get out of his way.

Ryoma knew the moment Yusuke noticed him. The older boy came to a halt and actually cracked a smile.

“Hey, kid. What's up?” Yusuke called as he started to jog over.

Ryoma opened his mouth to answer, when Momoshiro stepped in front of him.

“Stay back,” his senpai muttered, as he held his hand out in front of Ryoma as if to shield him. It was so unexpected that the freshmen nearly ran into the arm in front of him.

“Wha- Momo?” he said in askance. Momoshiro didn't look at him, just kept glaring at Yusuke.

The green clad teenager came up short at the look, his face dropping from a happy surprise to something unreadable. 

Ryoma tried to go around Momoshiro’s arm, but the bigger boy wouldn’t let him by. 

“Stay back, Echizen. That guy's bad news.”

“Made made dane,” Echizen said, annoyed now as he ducked around Momo, but the older boy grabbed his shirt and tugged him back. Yusuke frowned, but didn't say anything. Ryoma wished he would. The other teen was never this quiet. 

He glared furiously up at his sempai, silently promising himself that the next time they played, he would teach the older boy some manners. Just because he was short didn’t mean he could be manhandled like that. He wanted an explanation and he wanted it now. 

“He’s dangerous,” said Momo, cajoling Ryoma like he was a misbehaving child. 

“I'm flattered,” Yusuke said, something hard in his voice that Ryoma hadn’t heard directed at him before. 

Ryoma turned away from Momo’s stupid face. Yusuke’s posture had changed. He had turned mostly to the side and his hands were clenched into fists, ready for a fight. 

Momo turned to face the other boy as well and flinched back from the hard look on Yusuke’s face. Ryoma looked back and forth between his friends and realized, rather abruptly, that Momo was scared. Of Yusuke.

“What do you want, Urameshi?” Momo asked, accusing. 

Yusuke rolled his eyes. “What, a guy can't walk down the street? Last I looked, you didn't own the sidewalk.”

“Not a guy like you.”

“Oh, yeah? Well maybe you'd like to go a round and figure out just what kinda guy I am, since I think I'd remember a face as ugly as yours if I'd ever met you before,” Yusuke sneered as he leaned forward. 

He was vicious in a way Ryoma hadn't seen since they’d first met. 

Momo took a step back into the freshman, making Ryoma stumble a bit. Yusuke glanced at him, and Echizen didn't know what the older boy saw as he looked between them, but his face relaxed from openly hostile to the shuttered expression he had had when Momo first started talking.

“Friend of yours?” Yusuke asked Ryoma, jerking his head towards Momo. 

Ryoma nodded and opened his mouth, to explain, to tell Momo off for being such an asshole, when said senpai shouted, “What's it to you?”

Yusuke didn't say anything, just looked between them, eyes lingering on where Momo was still gripping Ryoma’s shirt.

Ryoma struggled to get free, but Momo’s white knuckled grip wasn’t budging. “Let go, Momo-sempai.”

“Echizen!” the older boy protested, “Do you even know who that is?”

“Made made dane!” Ryoma said, ready to make the older boy let go. “He’s my -”

“Don't worry about it,” said Yusuke, cutting him off. “Fun as this has been,” the green clad boy said, “I've got places to be. See you around, kid.”

And then Yusuke turned around, and sauntered off.

Friend, he was going to say. Yusuke was his friend, the first he'd made here in Japan, and now his new friend was bad mouthing him, and Yusuke seemed okay with it. 

Yusuke always fought back. About everything. During their runs, they argued about everything from ice-cream flavors to tennis rackets. Yusuke didn't even know anything about tennis rackets and he managed to argue about them. It was one of Ryoma’s favorite things about him. He didn't like this Yusuke, who looked so nonchalant about bullshit.

Ryoma was pretty bad at people. He barely paid enough attention to most of them to even recognize them. Most people got shoved into the ‘unimportant’ section of his mind and left there to collect cobwebs. And his smart mouth had gotten him into more trouble than he wanted to admit. Most people thought he deserved whatever he got for being so rude.

Yusuke wasn't like that. He had stood up for Ryoma, even though he didn't have to.  
No one had ever done that before.

Now he had vanished into the crowd.

“What the hell, senpai?” he demanded as Momo released his shirt, threat gone. 

“You're new. You don't know the kind of stuff that guy is into,” Momo defended himself. “Yusuke Urameshi. That guy runs half of town. He threatens people and beats them up and steals things. He doesn’t care about anyone or anything. He's a thug and one of the worst, everyone knows that. You shouldn't be anywhere near him, much less talking to him!” 

“You're wrong. You don't know him at all.”

Ryoma stormed off, ignoring Momo calling after him. He was too mad. He needed to find a wall somewhere to pound a ball against. He’d talk to Yusuke the next time he saw him and explain. 

But first, tennis. He was in no mood to talk to anyone right now. 

Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, no one in the Spirit World was paying any attention to the insignificant argument they had just had. So when Yusuke Urameshi died two hours later saving a kid from a reckless driver, even they hadn't seen it coming.

**Author's Note:**

> If you are still here, you are my favorite kind of people. Let me know what you think? 
> 
> Much love,  
-Moth


End file.
